LINGERING SINS
There are so many areas where I have made progress spiritually. I'm not the same person I used to be. But oh, there are still sins that seem to hang on and hang around!
Let me name some recent ones. It may only be me, but there are days when I'm judgmental. I know you aren't. But it's so easy for me to flip over into a critical spirit, even when I've had time alone with God in the morning. It's bad enough for those thoughts to reside inside of me, but there is something that makes me want to share my thoughts with someone else. That's gossip.
Then, there are days when I'm negative. I have the most wonderful life, and yet I still complain about everything that I have to do and whine about how I'm going to find time to do it. I also have a tendency to be petty. Too many times, little offenses irritate me. 1 Corinthians 13 says love doesn't even take into account a wrong suffered. I not only take account of it, but I blow it up and make it bigger than it actually was.
These things may also happen to you. Let's talk about what to do when they do. These feelings and attitudes are like warning lights on your car's dashboard. These are warning lights that come on your spiritual dashboard. They mean you aren't abiding, intentionally or unintentionally, you've become unplugged from Jesus. Just stop what you are doing, the same way you have to pull into a filling station. Take 5 or 10 minutes to confess your attitudes and ask the Holy Spirit to reset you and refill you.
If you do this all day long, it will be as natural as breathing. Breathe out your sin and breathe in the Holy Spirit. If you don't stop and address it immediately, you will find yourself in a downward spiral. The Holy Spirit is the red light on the dashboard. He is the referee blowing the whistle. Don't be discouraged. It is the ongoing process of sanctification. The answer is to do something about it. Don't ignore it. It doesn't get better. It gets worse. It's so easy to undo your spiritual progress, but you don't have to. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
